The most recent This Week at Bungie (opens in new tab) put up grapples with one of many Future 2 neighborhood’s hottest matters: Weapon crafting. Particularly, the steadiness thereof. For an inveterate Future addict equivalent to myself, the addition of crafting has been a internet optimistic, enabling me to construct an ideal arsenal, painstakingly curated with enhanced variations of the precise perks I need. For much less dedicated (some would possibly say saner) gamers, the method of monitoring down crafting patterns after which leveling up the weapons may be time-consuming and tedious.
A lot in order that I feel the current emphasis on buying patterns—for which you need to discover a number of uncommon ‘crimson field’ drops of the identical gun—has turn out to be Future 2’s core seasonal loop, and never in a optimistic means. Frustration with that course of is enjoying into the present complaints concerning the seasonal mannequin having turn out to be too samey. Even I am prepared to confess that dumping hours into the Shuro Chi raid encounter simply because it is probably the most environment friendly solution to farm trash mobs for weapon-level progress isn’t the signal of a wholesome system.
Change is on the way in which, however we’ll have to attend till subsequent yr’s Lightfall growth to benefit from the full advantages. Within the put up, Bungie identifies a number of ache factors it is looking for to handle and explains the way it plans to take action. Here is a truncated model:
- Deepsight weapons (ie “crimson packing containers”) are too widespread and clog up gamers’ vaults whereas they wait to extract the crafting forex. To alleviate this Bungie will likely be including new methods to earn crafting currencies, and weapons that do not have crafting patterns will now not drop as Deepsights (which is nice as a result of that was at all times complicated).
- Higher unhealthy luck safety. The purpose right here is to forestall gamers from getting blue-balled by RNG with regards to unlocking the precise sample they need. It is not completely clear what the brand new system will contain, however Bungie guarantees to “present alternatives throughout the crafting system to deterministically select what weapon to focus on.”
- Cut back loadout stress. Proper now, gamers really feel pressured to play with “unhealthy” Deepsight weapons simply so their crafting forex may be extracted. Once more, the trail to tips on how to stop this is not clear, however Bungie guarantees to “cut back participant incentives to equip a suboptimal Deepsight or crafted weapon” as a part of the leveling course of.
- Make Adept raid weapons matter once more. Ever because the addition of crafting, the worth of Adept weapons (which drop from Grasp content material) has been diminished. Why hassle sweating your balls off within the hardest raid on provide for a drop that will likely be outclassed by one you possibly can construct your self? Right here the reply appears to be giving Adept weapons entry to enhanced perks, though Bungie does word it is not going to be “full, freeform crafting.”
All of it feels like good things, and truthfully not an excessive amount of of a shock. Including crafting to a looter shooter was at all times going to have a seismic impact on the perceived worth of each the gear itself and the participant time required to create it. It could have been a miracle if the system had been good straight out of the gate, so a considerable quantity of tweaking was at all times to be anticipated.
Earlier than these systemic modifications arrive in Lightfall, Bungie additionally introduced that it’s bringing crafting to the weapons of the Deep Stone Crypt raid subsequent season, which begins on December 6. It is also going to refresh the perk swimming pools of these weapons.
“Our objective is to maintain probably the most beloved combos and drop the remaining to make room for brand spanking new perks,” mentioned senior design lead Chris Proctor. “With Deep Stone Crypt particularly, we regarded for brand spanking new perks that synergize nicely with the perks that originated with Deep Stone Crypt: Reconstruction, Recombination, and Redirection. (I.e., new perk combos may appear to be: Reconstruction + Targeted Fury, or Fourth Time’s the Attraction + Redirection).”
The Deep Stone Raid arsenal is already stacked with absolute bangers just like the Succession sniper rifle and Heritage slug shotgun, so giving these entry to new and highly effective synergistic perks is fairly mouthwatering. Proctor gave three examples of potential combos, all of which look disgustingly good:
- Heritage (Slug Shotgun): Reconstruction + Targeted Fury
- Posterity (Hand Cannon): Voltshot + Rampage
- Trustee (Scout Rifle): Speedy Hit + Incandescent
Proctor saidd that the revamped Deep Stone Crypt weapons are additionally getting their very own origin trait known as “Bray Inheritance.” He did not say what profit it would confer although, so let the hypothesis start.
Whether or not all this is sufficient to quell the grumpiness concerning the current excesses of the Crafting system… the inevitable reply might be not, however a minimum of gamers can now see concrete change is coming. And regardless, I now know I will be spending a lot of subsequent season excessive above Europa getting reacquainted with my good buddy Taniks (opens in new tab). Who knew he’d be again once more!